Curtin University and Managing Director of Indigenous Psychological Services Dr Tracy Westerman have launched a unique scholarship program to support Indigenous students to study psychology.

The Dr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal Psychology Program will support Aboriginal students to study psychology at Curtin University in undergraduate or postgraduate courses.

Dr Westerman, who became the first Aboriginal person to complete a combined Masters/PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2003, will personally donate $10,000 per annum over five years, totalling $50,000.

"The Dr Tracy Westerman Aboriginal Psychology Scholarship Program will aim to foster the development of the next generation of clinicians committed to researching and delivering evidence-based, best practice into our high-risk communities," Dr Westerman said.

"As a proud Njamal woman from the Pilbara region of Western Australia, my vision is to support students with remote and rural connections through their university studies with the aim of becoming Aboriginal psychologists skilled in Indigenous-specific mental health and suicide prevention and intervention programs."

The scholarship program will encourage graduates to give back to the remote communities most in need of mental health care services.

"The benefit of working in remote communities is that there are significantly greater challenges as a clinician to work at the ‘coal face' of those in greatest need and often with an absence of resources to assist.

"It challenges you as a psychologist in the best possible way, and the learning curve is significant.

"Most of my professional work has been in remote areas, and it is in these areas that I learnt the most about what being a psychologist meant. To be able to see the impacts across whole communities is so very humbling," said Dr Westerman. 

Dr Westerman said she wants to inspire the next generation to see these regions as an opportunity to change lives.

"This generation can then inspire future generations – the more examples we have of local people capable of working at the most complex end of suicide and mental ill health the more it encourages others."

Curtin University Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry thanked Dr Westerman for her generous support for Indigenous education and encouraged other organisations to support the worthy cause.

"This scholarship program offers a unique opportunity to invest in Aboriginal education and the future wellbeing of some of our most vulnerable regional and remote communities," Professor Terry said.

The scholarship is vital because remote communities have the highest rates of suicide and mental health needs, explained Dr Westerman.

"Remoteness is related to this and the more remote, the more complex and diverse the culture becomes.

"It is so important that we have the greatest number of psychologists in these areas of greatest need.

"Most importantly, the scholarship is also a program in which I will personally mentor successful recipients in evidence-based best practice to ensure that these communities will ideally have the resources that are needed.

"It is an unconscious bias that exists with regard to mobilising resources into these areas, and the scholarship was, to be honest, borne out of this frustration that the highest risk communities seem to be forgotten by funding bodies.

"The scholarship program aims to address the obvious skills shortage in these areas, but we need to do this urgently.

"We are currently seeking donations for the scholarship with the aim of achieving a minimum of $250,000 in funds annually.

"This will ensure that the scholarship exists in perpetuity. While I have personally donated $10,000 annually for the first five years, Curtin University's endowment trust enables the scholarship to survive off interest, and the target is, therefore, $250,000," said Dr Westerman. 

Anyone can donate at https://alumniandgive.curtin.edu.au/giving-to-curtin/where-to-give/westermanscholarship/